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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Back Roads to the White House: All-points bulletin

There's a mystery man out there, and we think former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee might want to send him a thank you note. Why? Because by picketing outside the grand opening of Huckabee's Des Moines headquarters on Wednesday, he signaled that this once obscure southern governor has finally arrived in that high-value target zone where "Rudy McRomney" resides. First of all, Huckabee should be happy that the Iowa penal system sent someone to welcome him to downtown Des Moines. After all, it's a nice distraction from Radio Iowa's exclusive report on Huckabee's recent jokes about miniskirts and thong underwear. More importantly, it accomplishes what Huckabee had tried to do in one of the nationally-televised debates, when he practically begged Republican rival Jim Gilmore to attach his name to that "Rudy McRomney" slur along with front-runners like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney. Said Huckabee: "I wish my name would get in the monicker. I could use the bump." Romney already has been targeted by a fuzzy-tailed "varmint" -- a tribute to Romney's hunting skills -- and a porpoise calling himself "flipper."